Eh? It's an interesting idea, but I just don't really vibe with it as a whole. Even as someone with a soft spot for games that radically switch up the formula like Zelda 2 I don't have much to say about it. I do think it's interesting, but oh my god if the bosses aren't just being nothing and dying they're being actively frustrating. I absolutely loathe the abandoned mines second visit and it has maybe my least favorite boss in the series. The random warp is so jarring and it's just very very irritating.

That being said I love being quirky so I'll still call myself a real #WANDERER and hypebeast this game a little. It's got stuff worth checking out if you're really deep into the series and just wanna see what they worked off of for Oath in Felghana, cause seeing both close together made me appreciate both more!

This game's pretty cool. It is more of a sidescrolling action RPG this time rather than a top down bump combat action RPG. The scrolling for the levels is particularly choppy on the PC engine version of the game, which is the one I chose to play, but I do believe the scrolling is better on other systems so play on those if the scrolling is too disorienting. This game is really fascinating to me in the fact that for its time I feel like this is a really really really solid glimpse at what video games are to become in the future, with how the game has a focus on storytelling that is actually decently written and choreographed in-engine, instead of just having text on a screen or an FMV video playing. The voice acting, while a step down from the actually well-performed Ys book 1 & 2, is actually still rather decent for its time. It's still cheesy deliveries on most lines but it's not like Last Alert or Valis 2 levels of bad. This game is a game that I feel if I played it back when it was brand new on this new cutting edge hardware, I would think differently about video games as a whole medium, and I don't really say that about a lot of video games. Play if you are willing and able to see it from that mindset, since otherwise by today's standards you just kinda have a chunky lil decent platforming action RPG.

Better than its reputation would suggest, at least in this version, Ys III starts as a total banger thanks to its fast paced combat and incredible soundtrack. But the game turns frustrating whenever any friction or level of difficulty is introduced, which starts to happen after the second stage or so. Boss fights are horribly awkward, vascillating wildly between “extremely difficult” to “dies in 5 seconds if you stand in the right spot”, and don’t get me started on the platforming. Combat can be snappy but especially in the later stages turns into “stand in a spot and swing your sword really fast while an enemy walks into it so you don’t lose 15% of your health per hit”.

And the plot! They decided to give Adol a voice here and hey it turns out he’s a rampant misogynist, committing micro and macro-aggressions against Elena left and right. Mistake

Still there are things to enjoy here. The fundamental concept is sound, and you can see the bones of a fun side scroller, one that could have been realized with some more polish. The stage backgrounds are ambitious and exciting, and the combat can be snappy thanks to the absurd speed at which Adol swings his sword. And once again the soundtrack is top-tier, especially with the CD quality in this port. The game is at least playable and has its charms if you’re interested in seeing the evolution of the whole series